As the ways of living get diversified at present, the number of rooms equipped with a bed or beds is increasing. Particularly in cities, the ratio of housing expenses among the cost of living is ever soaring. On the other hand, the number of single dwellers is increasing and the demand for so-called "one-room apartment house" is increasing, too. If a bed is fixed in such a small room, the floor space occupied by the bed cannot be utilized effectively. Accordingly, the bed cannot be set in practice in a room having a small space. An example of conventional beds to solve this problem has a construction in which one of the ends of the bed is fixed while the other end is pulled up in order to store the bed. According to this bed, however, furniture must be moved when the bed is used and be returned after the bed is stored. In addition, the mat and bedclothes must be bound of stored separately lest they should fall off when the bed is stored.
To eliminates all the problems of the prior art described above, the present invention is directed to provide and elevation bed which includes a bed main body having a frame assembly structure, support rods disposed vertically between the floor and the ceiling, supporting elevatably the bed main body and having a grooved sectional shape, an elevation device for moving up and down the bed main body and a safety device, wherein the elevation device includes a winding mechanism and a wire driving system wound on the winding mechanism and the winding mechanism winds and rewinds the wire so that the bed main body can be moved between the storage position on the ceiling side and the descension position to use the bed while keeping its horizontal posture.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an elevation bed which may be of a type wherein the winding mechanism described above is incorporated in the bed main body or of a type wherein the winding mechanism is mounted to a support structure formed at the upper part of the support rods, and which may bed of an electric type or of a manual type.
When the elevation bed is of the electric type, it is still another object of the present invention to provide a slack sensor which detects the slack of the wire driving system of the winding mechanism and cuts off a power source.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an elevation management mechanism for managing the elevating operation of the bed main body by constituting the guard handrail, which is disposed around the bed main body of the electric type elevation bed, in such a manner that it can be turned up and down, and at the time of use when the guard handrail is erected, a management switch operates to manage the elevating operation of the bed main body.
It it still another object of the present invention to provide an elevation management mechanism for manually managing the elevating operation of the bed main body by assembling a management switch in a decorative edge around the periphery of the bed main boby so as to constitute a touch sensor.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ascension limit sensor for limiting the upper limit of ascension of the bed main body by assembling an operation plate and a sensing switch in the ceiling above the bed main body so as to constitute a touch sensor.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an ascension limit sensor for limiting the upper limit of ascension of the bed main body by constituting a photoelectric switch near the ceiling surface above the bed main body.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a descension limit sensor for limiting the lower limit of descension of the bed main body by assembling an operation plate and a sensing switch in the lower surface of the bed main body to constitute a touch sensor.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stopper for setting the lower limit of descention of the bed main body by anchoring a stopper vertically movably at the lower part of support rods forming guide rails.
It is still another object, but not the last object, of the present invention to provide an emergency stop device for preventing the drop of the bed main body when the wire is broken accidentally.